Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Success Depends Also On A
Thorough Knowledge Of The Different Superposed Strata.
The practice of
the science of mining is closely linked with the progress of geology;
and it would be
Easy to prove that many millions of piastres have been
rashly expended in South America from complete ignorance of the nature
of the formations, and the position of the rocks, in directing the
preliminary researches. At the present time it is not precious metals
solely which should fix the attention of new mining companies; the
multiplication of steam-engines renders it indispensable, wherever
wood is not abundant or easy of transport, to seek at the same time to
discover coal and lignites. In this point of view the precise
knowledge of the red sandstone, coal-sandstone, quadersandstein and
molassus (tertiary formation of lignites), often covered with basalt
and dolerite, is of great practical importance. It is difficult for a
European miner, recently arrived, to judge of a country presenting so
novel an aspect, and when the same formations cover an immense extent.
I hope that the present work, as well as my Political Essay on New
Spain, and my work on the Position of Rocks in the Two Hemispheres,
will contribute to diminish those obstacles. They may be said to
contain the earliest geologic information respecting places whose
subterraneous wealth attracts the attention of commercial nations; and
they will assist in the classification of the more precise notions
which later researches may add to my labours.
The republic of Colombia, in its present limits, furnishes a vast
field for the enterprising spirit of the miner.
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